Disclaimer:
This article is a direct street report from our correspondent and has not been edited by the 1st Responder newsroom.

Hometown Heroes Racing, founded by Michael E. Murphy in 2014, has the sole focus of building honor and camaraderie among first responders and the military. The team races to honor "the courage, commitment, and unswerving dedication of this nation’s First Responders,” (as quoted from their mission statement). Murphy felt that the teamwork of racing between racers and fans paralleled the teamwork required of first responders and that the two ideologies were harmonious with each other.

There are approximately 830,000 certified EMS personnel in the United States which operate in over 15,000 ambulance services and nearly 78,000 EMS response and transport vehicles. There are approximately 1-million Federal, State, Local and Tribal law enforcement personnel in the United States, making this the fifth largest standing army in the world. There are approximately 1,134,000 firefighters in the United States (82,500 and 7% are women!), including 788,000 volunteers (69%), and a Fire Service response averaging every 24 seconds.

Mike saw the DeltaWing race team and car and was impressed with both their skill and the patriotic display; the team’s dedication to innovation, technology and a better future was also made evident to him. It was at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona race that he got the idea to form a relationship between the two teams — it was an idea fully supported by DeltaWing team owner Don Panoz, and team manager Tim Keene.

Starting with the "Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen" weekend, being held June 29th through July 2nd, 2017 at Watkins Glen International, the DeltaWing team members will wear the badges of the U.S. Fire, Police and EMS services at this event. The Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen weekend is set to feature the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, Mazda Prototype Lites, Porsche GT3 Cup USA and Lamborghini Super Trofeo.

Tickets for this event are available by calling toll free at 866-461-RACE (7223) or visiting www.theglen.com/Track-Info/Contact-Us.aspx, there’s Early Bird Pricing through March 30th, 2017. Watkins Glen International is located at 2790 County Route 16, Watkins Glen, NY 14891.

Michael E. Murphy, RN, CEN, EMT-P, is the Chief of Operations of Rockland Paramedic Service Inc. and Rockland Mobile Care located in Chestnut Ridge, NY. He has more than 25-years of experience as a field paramedic, including 15-years in the NYC-9-1-1 system. Murphy is a NYS-EMS certified instructor coordinator and member of the NYS-EMS Regional Faculty for the Hudson Valley and is a licensed critical care and ED registered nurse.

Panoz DeltaWing Racing’s team owner, Don Panoz, has been involved in racing for over 20-years, and had a career in the pharmaceutical, resort and tech industries, working closely with many first responders and the military.